Naruto Drabbles
by Ddriana
Summary: Drabbles. Itachi 'It was just a necklace, but...' Kimimaro 'Nine out of ten die...' Sasuke 'It's not that Sasuke likes Sakura...' Tobi 'Before you die you die your life flashes before your eyes.' Kyuubi 'A crying infant sounds just like a fox in pain.'
1. The Necklace

It was a small and unimportant thing. Chain and cold metal. Sasuke had made it at the age of six and given it to Itachi with a great sunshine smile.  
He wore it on his Anbu missions, to remind him of why he had to survive and make it home again.  
He wore it when he annihilated his clan, to remind him of why he had to kill all but one.  
He wore it when he went on missions for Akatsuki, to remind him of the death at the hands of an avenger – one day.

To Itachi it represented hope.


	2. Visit

Kimimaro can't _see_, but he doesn't have to see what the dark room has to offer. Footsteps, silence, equipment being moved, the touch…

These hands are different; they do not belong to Kabuto.

He remembers these hands, the touch, the way they move, the way they seep away your own warmth to warm themselves.

These are the hands of God.

"Orochimaru-sama," he whispers and smiles an unseen smile.


	3. My Dream

Itachi coming home.  
Itachi poking his forehead.  
Itachi paying attention to him.  
There was nothing in the world that he wanted more.

"My dream… is to kill a man."  
That is no dream for a child.  
If only Itachi had known.

"My dream… is to die fighting."


	4. Nine out of Ten

Nine out of ten die.

Kimimaro knows this.

Orochimaru knows this.

Kimimaro knows that Orochimaru knows this.

He also knows that Orochimaru is willing to gamble Kimimaro's life on odds so poor. Orochimaru has always had better luck than Tsunade, after all. He isn't afraid of betting against the odds.

Kimimaro knows that Orochimaru is not afraid at all, perhaps even when he ought to be.

Nine out of ten die, and while it hurts nothing happens for a long time.

Orochimaru has more luck in games than Tsunade, after all.

Then Kimimaro begins to cough up blood, and he knows. He _knows_…

Nine out of ten die.

The seal is tearing him apart from the inside, his body, his kekkei genkai can't keep up.

Nine out of ten die, and Kimimaro knows he will not be the tenth.


	5. Forehead

It's not that Sasuke _likes_ Sakura. He doesn't, of course, because she's just like the rest of the girls who follow him around with their eyes, claiming that they love him when they don't even know him. But he does feel something for her, and he finds it difficult to formulate, difficult to pinpoint. 

It isn't loyalty, exactly, because he knows he will leave her behind one of these days. It's not really trust, because when did Sakura ever stand on her own two feet? It certainly isn't love, because Sasuke hasn't loved anyone since his world was torn apart by that special someone. But it's affection, of a sort. He wants to protect her, from others and himself, because she needs it. He wants her to be stronger, but she is so _weak_ it sickens him.

There are times when Sasuke's eyes pause on Sakura's forehead. It's big and he has to fight not to stare at it every so often. He can't seem to look her in the eyes at times, and have to settle for her eyebrows. But it's right there, between a curtain of pink hair and green eyes. Taunting him. Reminding him.

But Sasuke will never, ever obey his fingers when they twitch a little, telling him to show his affection the only way he knows how to. Because it wasn't affection after all.


	6. The Fifth Hokage

AU: Itachi never betrayed the Uchiha clan.

The mark on Sasuke's neck was sealed, limited, controlled.  
The Third Hokage was mourned.  
The Fifth Hokage rarely smiled, never laughed, but he brought Konoha the bloody vengeance it wished for, and the head of the missing snake-nin.  
The Uchiha clan was so proud, until the day when the sad eyes did not turn to look upon their section of Konoha, but the entire village.  
Sasuke was to be all that remained of the village hidden in the leaves.


	7. Duality

The yellow eyes blink slowly, taking in the scene.  
"I think it's about time," the black Zetsu says.  
"Yeah," the white Zetsu answers.

"How childish," Sakura says and sighs, voice full of contempt. She corrects her dress and watches Naruto from the corner of her eye. Inside Inner Sakura cheers, her messy hair flying wild and eyes positively burning with energy. "I love things like this!"

A couple of days later the older brother wakes up, dressed in a black cloak adorned with clouds red as blood, and he realizes what Itachi has done.


	8. Mangekyo 1

It's different.

He knows that it's different. It has to be. The colors are right. Of course it's different.

And then Sasuke snaps out of it, leaves the world of the tsukiyomi, and he's eight years old again, and nothing's changed, and Itachi is watching him with those blood red eyes. And it was much, much crueler this way.

Kakashi is just a man he passed by in the streets.

Sakura is just one of the many girls who coo over him in the academy.

Naruto is just a lonely reject orphan who nobody wants to spend time with.

Orochimaru is just a name heard in whispered conversations.

And he doesn't really know them.

Itachi really is a marvelous liar.


	9. Mangekyo 2

Sometimes, Sasuke wakes up and for a moment he isn't sure where he is, what year it is, if his family is alive or not. He wakes up hoarse, but no one comes to calm him down, so he concludes that his family must be dead, but he gets out of bed to check all the same, because maybe…

One time there was a man in his kitchen, and his heart almost stopped with joy. But Kakashi is no substitute, he doesn't make the kitchen warm like mother, his opinion doesn't matter as much as father's, and he doesn't say kind things that mean nothing like brother. It never happens again, because Kakashi seems to understand the pain he caused by just letting himself in early in the morning the way he can do with Naruto.

But there are times when Sasuke wakes up and for a moment the colors are all wrong, and he is eight years old again, and it's happening all over again, because the world of the tsukiyomi never really leaves you.

Maybe one day he will snap out of it, he thinks as he slowly forces milk down his sore throat. Maybe one day he won't wake up and wonder if he ever really was released from Itachi's eternal world of never ending terrors.


	10. Trust

"I trust you to the bottom of my heart," he said, and therefore she swore to die for him.

It's only much later that Anko realizes how easily falsehoods spring from her sensei's tongue.

It's only much later that Anko realizes that trust does not bring loyalty, and she is lucky to even be alive.

Because Orochimaru is a gambling man, and he bets stakes much higher than his former team mate, stakes which are not his to gamble. Anko's resolve crumbles as her heart is sliced open in one swift, delicate move.

"I have no more use of you."


	11. Duty

It rained. The weather seemed always to be tactful, Shikamaru considered silently. It hid his tears, and it hid hers too. The smoke of his cigarette stubbornly made its way into the dark grey sky. There was a baby on the way, someone had to protect it. Someone had to be a man and take responsibility.

He had always been Asuma's favourite; their teacher had never denied it.

But there was a price to pay for favouritism, for knowledge, for attention, for maturity.

Shikamaru reached out and dutifully entwined his fingers in Kurenai's.


	12. Two Gaping Holes

There were two gaping holes in his chest. He wouldn't be going much further than this, he realized, clutching his forehead protector, and then it all turned black.

There were two gaping holes in his chest. He was vaguely aware of how he wasn't going to go anywhere, but the green light around him and the chill of a cold breeze against naked skin told him things his mind could not quite process then and there.

There had been two gaping hols in his chest. When he came to Neji stared up into his nervous cousin's white eyes, feeling her warm hand on his. His chest was whole again.


	13. Kill Me Softly

(Uchihacest: #13)

Even in the midst of battle Karin never lost sight of Sasuke. Even as she fought Kisame alongside Suigetsu and Juugo, water meeting water and sword meeting sword, she never once lost track of the younger Uchiha's movements.

But what Karin saw was not a mere fight to the death. It was not avenging a dead family. It wasn't even a victory.

When Sasuke pushed his sword into Itachi's gut the older brother's back arched, almost as if… And when Sasuke pushed on and on and they finally had only the hilt between them, and then nothing, it reminded her of… When Itachi should have been gasping for his final breath it looked more like…  
Half closed eyes, lips gently parted, blood coloring pearly white teeth, clothes just barely separating the two. Pale fingers entwined in a black ponytail, needy eyes devoid of anything but want, a brave tongue tasting a bond that only death could put an end to.  
A pair of pitch-black eyes admiring another equally dark.  
Hips so close.  
Short gasps.

It was then that Karin realized that she had never stood a chance.


	14. The Climb Kills Before the Fall

(AN: Naruto Themes: #10)

At the age of eight Sasuke loses everything. The only thing that remains of his clan is his brother, but Itachi is no longer the brother of his childhood.  
At the age of twelve Sasuke faces his brother for the first time as an avenger. The message of his weakness is pounded in with fist that had once caressed.  
At the age of thirteen Sasuke leaves Konoha to join the village of Sound. He tells himself that the training is worth the sacrifices and the snakes writhing inside of him at night.  
At the age of fifteen Sasuke faces his brother for a final time. This time Itachi slays him, but it doesn't matter because Sasuke has already died three times over already.


	15. Carry on My Wayward Son

(AN: I lurk at Naruto100 (http://community . livejournal . com/naruto100/) and this is due to one of their old challenges: Lyrics. Song of choice 'Carry on my wayward son' by Kansas.)

I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high. I was a genius, but I was also a monster. I could tell that they were avoiding me, watching me from the corner of their eyes. Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man, for so many years. I didn't understand _why_ for the longest time. When it dawned on me, through overheard conversations and long periods of silent contemplation, I realized that I was a probationary Uchiha member.

I carried the blood in my veins, but I was _too good_. Too deadly. Too perfect a weapon to be considered a family member.

Talent alienates, skill in death brings fear.

I hear the voices when I'm dreaming. I can hear them say…


	16. Orochimaru's Girl

(AN: Naruto100 again, challenge: First Kiss. Bonus: Unconventional pairings)

Orochimaru's girl has been watching him when she thinks that he can't tell, but Itachi's eyes are keener than normal ninja's. He is unsure as to why she does it though, and so he lets her keep doing it.

It isn't unusual for Itachi to be practicing on his own (father never has time, mother has Sasuke to consider. You always have to consider Sasuke) and he's quite content that way. People come and go, and Itachi doesn't care, because he's busy training. One evening Orochimaru passes, says some pleasantries in a voice that bothers Itachi, but he can't put his finger on why. The Sannin watches him practice a little and then leaves, and the girl is watching the brief exchange, and they both know it. A week later, on the day, the older girl stops watching him and approaches. By now Itachi has grown annoyed at the pair of eyes seemingly always on him and he wants an explanation, but he doesn't ask because he knows he won't have to.

Orochimaru's girl takes him aside and presses her chapped lips against his. This time he watches her. She leans her forehead against his and grimaces, and Itachi knows that he's failed the examination, but that is unimportant to him. He's got his answers.

It's his first kiss, but it isn't Anko's.


	17. Responsibilities

(AN: I once said that I had drawn and/or written every single Sandcest short of a threesome, and then I realized I was wrong. I had forgotten the older generation. Challenge: Squick.)

Temari had known at a very young age that she was to take her mother's role in a lot of things. She was the oldest of the three siblings, and even though she was only three she realized that her brothers needed her.  
She grew older more responsibilities piled up, and she accepted them all. Most of them she took on gladly, some reluctantly, but she accepted them all.  
As she caressed her father's dark red hair, looking at the waxing moon, she wondered briefly if he would ever call out her name, or if Karura's ghost would always haunt them.


	18. Betrayal

(AN: Challenge: Betrayal. Bonuses: Sannin, Kabuto, Sasuke.)

Kabuto narrowed his eyes and corrected his glasses.  
"I saw that, Orochimaru-sama," he said firmly, holding back the hurt.  
"I don't know what you are talking about," the Sannin replied calmly.  
Kabuto pointed at the red piece on the board, making its way among the snakes and ladders. It had missed a snake by one square. One square the dice had definitely not allowed it to pass.  
"You just cheated on Sasuke's behalf," he said, glaring at his superior.  
Sasuke rolled his eyes and yawned.  
"This is boring," he declared. "Why don't you teach me a new technique instead?"


	19. Strong

(AN: Challenge: Cruelty. Bonuses: A roaring noise, water, one of the Sound Genin trio)

**Strong**

"I will make you strong." So they joined the Village Hidden in Sound.

They came to Orochimaru, Zaku with useless arms and she in tears. "Everything will be alright," he told them, and they believed him.  
"I will give you one more chance." And they knew that it was true.

As the jutsu roared, tearing at her with an intense ferocity, Kin finally understood.

"_But I never could have become stronger than what I was, in that very moment…"_ She saw the aged old Hokage and his shocked expression. She felt a hand sink into her as good as liquid skull, placing something inside her, and all her thoughts drowned in water.

"_But it wasn't really me…"_


	20. For the Good of the Village

(AN: Challenge: Divergences)

Itachi was five years old. It was war, still, again, he wasn't sure. There always seemed to be a war. His father came home, bloody, his mother was broken with childbirth and the infant brother who cried all through the night. Yondaime stood in the doorway.

"Are you sure?" he had asked Fugaku. Itachi remembered this well.

"It's for the good of the village," his father had said. And with that he had been sent with the Hokage, while his mother cried and screamed and begged them to change their minds. But there was no _time_ for alternatives.

Itachi remembers being naked in front of Yondaime, remembers the wind, remembers staring into the eyes of the kyuubi. He remembers the pain. He also remembers coming to, his stomach burning, wrapped in his discarded clothing by an Anbu member wearing a mask resembling a dog. After that the people of the village began to avoid him, all previous praise and approval evaporated regardless of how quickly he progressed and how skilled he became.

"How did you get that?" Sasuke asks him one hot evening, as they lie side by side on the porch, looking at the pattern on his eleven-year-old brother's stomach.

"It was for the good of the village," he replies bitterly, staring into the sky.


	21. Before You Die

(AN: Challenge: Memories. Bonus(es): Yondaime (sorta), smiles)

It is said that before you die your life flashes before your eyes. Deidara-senpai had scoffed at him when he had asked, and then gotten angry over the implied weakness that Tobi had not intended.

He knew now that it was true though. Fussy memories were becoming solid, touchable. A young man with bright yellow hair and determined sky blue eyes. A girl with the healing touch and heartache written all over her pretty face. And oh, the one that had grown up. Dreams and nightmares became reality in that very moment, stones and pain more real, as he stared into his own eye.

He didn't put up much of a struggle though, because he already knew the outcome of the battle.

Behind the mask Obito smiled.


	22. Seven Years

(AN: Challenge 'No time')

Kisame was thirty-one, and Itachi was ten years younger. They had been partners for seven years.  
Face to face with thirteen enemies in three teams Kisame realizes this:  
Numbers matter.

When Itachi was thirteen years old he had murdered his entire clan.  
He had risked his life for Kisame three times.  
They had known each other for seven years.

At the age of seven Itachi graduated from the Academy and was shortly thereafter sent into war as a gennin.  
When Kisame was thirteen he had been making his first plans of abandoning Mist.  
There had only ever been three people that Itachi had cared for – Shisui, Sasuke, Kisame.

Itachi had once during their partnership had a headache that lasted for three crippling days.  
Itachi once ate thirteen dumplings in three minutes, seven of which had been Kisame's.  
They had once been forced to hide in the woods for seven days straight without provisions.

Itachi would yawn seven times every morning and stretch three times. This was a rule that was never, ever defied.  
The Uchiha had thrown exactly thirteen fits during the seven years they had spent together.  
Itachi had held Samehada three times and paid the price every single time.

Three years after their introduction Itachi had made silent demands in a dark hotel room.  
For thirteen months the younger shinobi had come to him and him alone.  
There had been seven others, but none of them had ever been revisited.

Thirteen individuals who all wanted Itachi dead.  
It was the third time Sasuke tried to fight his older brother.  
So what were seven years now that they were about to end?


	23. Friends

Naruto gets friends for the first time at the age of twelve, shortly after he's learned the kage bunshin no jutsu.

It's not perfect, but life never is, and it's better than it used to be.

Sakura loves Sasuke, not him, but she talks to him, and she shows her real self to him, the way she doesn't for Sasuke. And Naruto loves Sakura's real self too, even if she's scary sometimes.

When Naruto's tired he retreats to be alone, sleeps, and when he wakes up they're soon there again.

Naruto gets friends for the first time at the age of twelve, just after he's learned henge no jutsu.


	24. Hierarchy

(AN: Challenge "Seconds")

It had begun the very moment they had been divided into Team 8 – the battle for superiority. Neither of the two would accept defeat despite the silent acknowledgement of the other's skill.  
But for all their struggles and friendly warfare they both knew that a mere frown on her pale forehead would put an end their arguments. A single word from her lips and they would obey.

Queen bee, alpha female, it mattered little what similes were made. Despite her ignorance she had always been their unquestionable leader.  
Their battle had always been about who was the second in command.


	25. Team spirit

Neji watched sourly as Gai and Lee took to loudly flattering each other, urging themselves on to new extremities.  
He had arrived at the assigned meeting place two minutes early, and had promptly been accused of being a slowpoke. Tenten was nowhere in sight, and in the absence of a coherent brain cell the spandex clad duo had proceeded to get excited and begun an extra, special and very _youthful_ pre-training training.  
It was behavior like this that made Neji want to turn and run, leave Konoha for good in search of sanity. There was only so much bulging muscles, sweat, tight spandex, bloody knuckles, shouting, insane promises, and vomiting from overextension that one should have to take.  
Yet he was certain that Gai would never sit back and resign himself to depression over such a betrayal in the manner that Kakashi had recently taken to. Neji knew that Gai would come running after him, shouting the most deranged things and fighting anything that stood in his way without hesitating in order to get him back, even if he had to drag him home by the hair. Despite his better judgment the knowledge warmed his heart, just a little, and he let out a sigh of defeat.

Tenten arrived a full seven minutes late and found the three of them walking on their hands.


	26. Painted masks

Information gathering, they had called it at first. It was the first time eleven-year-old Itachi had been requested to work without his usual Anbu team.  
"The target has repeatedly been seen together with an S ranked criminal, who we know to have connections to Orochimaru, one of our own missing nins," the Anbu captain, Bear, said helpfully, clearly for Itachi's benefit. Unnecessary, Itachi thought, he already knew of Orochimaru.  
"Under normal circumstances we would have requested a kunoichi," he continued, Itachi noted the slight unease in the man's voice. "But the information we have gathered show that such actions would be a waste of time. So I requested that you, Itachi, were to be part of this mission."  
Silence. Itachi quickly became acutely aware of how the other two Anbu members watched him behind their painted masks. Waiting. A heartbeat later Itachi accepted the mission with a mere nod.

They moved out that very night, guided by the bright moon, and traveled for two days with little rest. It was mere luck on their part that the man was still in the town where he had been spotted. Bear and Deer left Itachi to approach him, having given advice that turned out to be completely pointless once he was alone with the target. It quickly became clear that there were no secrets between the two of them once the clothes were discarded.  
"You want information," the man said, running his tongue over Itachi's left shoulder, where an illusion hid his Anbu tattoo. Itachi said nothing. "That's alright," long fingers traveled over him, touched him in places that normally circumstances would have resulted in bloodshed. "It's a common enough exchange."  
An impossibly long tongue wrapped itself around Itachi's thigh and pulled him closer. His cheeks burned hot with embarrassment and what had seemed simple enough in theory turned out to consist of simply too much touching, probing, licking, thrusting, nibbling. His training proved insufficient in that hotel room smelling faintly of lilacs.

They had waited for him. Planned the whole thing. He had played right into their hands. "We needed it to look convincing, didn't we?" indeed. There was an opening, and they had watched Itachi progress for a while now. Since the war, really, the man had laughed and kissed unresponsive lips. He was told two versions: one for him and one for the report. Itachi listened dutifully, consumed every word, weighing each sentence carefully, appraising the value of his body.

On their return home Deer showed no signs of anything but guilt and concern, Bear however asked questions which carefully avoided requesting any information that the report version did not contain. You helped arrange this, didn't you? Itachi mused silently. One spy, one ignorant, and one potential. There was no room for accusations, no room for questions, no room for anything but cold, painted masks and lies.  
Two months later Shisui was found floating in a river.


	27. Cub

As soon as the anger and surprise of being trapped had settled the kyuubi realized that a crying human infant sounds just like a fox in pain. It was a distracting sound and it tugged at her heartstrings. There was something soft and helpless that was hurting and sounding like a kin.

She adopted him, this human boy with the cursed seal like a tattoo on his belly, in her own way. Offered him company when no one else would, healed him when he was hurt, and when requested she did not mind offering her chakra to aid him. Her cub grew and his sanguine nature became more strained as he realized what beast he had within, and he grew to depend on her, grew greedy in his need for her strength. But her benevolence slowly came to an end as her need to protect gave way for the desire for freedom, brought forward by the knowledge that her cub was coming of age and must set out on his own.

Her power became a two edged sword, granting him strength to defeat his foes and at the same time causing him harm to drive him away from her. The kyuubi was old, as old and powerful as her nine tails revealed, and she knew what daybreak had in store for her cub, and why he had to learn to stand on his own two feet and stop clinging to her.


	28. Untitled

Sasuke had been dreaming about Orochimaru for a long time now, about the immense power dangled just within his reach for once. The seal always burned a little when he woke up, still sleepy and never quite rested. When the Sound Four came, when they showed him how strong they were, he abandoned thirteen years worth of certainty with only an hour of hesitation.

The dreams had become more insistent, left a metallic taste in his mouth upon awakening, ever since Itachi came for Naruto. Came for _Naruto_ and barely graced him with a second glance.

The sunshine must have warmed them there on the hospital roof but he hadn't felt it. Forever insignificant. The thought terrified him and had left him cold.

"You have to die once."

He couldn't go back now. He knew no happy ending would come from all of this, he knew that the past wouldn't be miraculously fixed because he killed Itachi, but he _had to_ kill him. So he had to do this. It might be the biggest mistake of his life to leave Konoha, but it might also be the biggest mistake of his life not to.

The pill tasted raw and metallic, like his dreams.

Tomorrow would reveal if this was the best or worst thing that he could have done. But he had to do it, he had to know. He couldn't go through the rest of his life wondering if Itachi would have been dead now, if only he had accepted the snake-nin's invitation.

Sasuke swallowed.


End file.
